Robert Kenny & Tim Suter Children’s television – a crisis of choice The case for greater commercial PSB investment in Children’s TV 26 February 2015 About Pact Pact is the UK trade association representing and promoting the commercial interests of independent feature film, television, digital, children’s and animation media companies. About Ragdoll The Ragdoll Foundation is dedicated to developing the power of imaginative responses in children through the arts. The Ragdoll Foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees, chaired by Katherine Wood and its founder is Anne Wood CBE. About the authors Robert Kenny advises companies, regulators and policy makers on issues of TMT strategy and policy. He is the author of numerous papers (academic and professional) and a regular speaker on these topics. Before co-founding Communications Chambers he was MD of Human Capital, a consulting firm. Past roles include heading Strategy and/or M&A for Hongkong Telecom, Reach and Level 3 (all multi- billion dollar telcos). He was also a founder of IncubASIA, a Hong Kong based venture capital firm investing in online businesses. Tim Suter is a founding member of Communications Chambers. He is an advisor on public policy and regulatory issues across the media and communications sectors. He was the founding Ofcom partner with responsibility for content regulation, a member of the statutory Content Board and Deputy Chairman of the Radio Licensing Committee. Before joining Ofcom he was Head of Broadcasting Policy at DCMS, responsible for steering the 2003 Communications Act through to Royal Assent. His broadcasting career at the BBC started in BBC Radio, where he was a drama and documentary producer and editor, before moving to BBC Television as a producer and reporter on Newsnight. Disclaimer The opinions offered in this report are purely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent a corporate opinion of Communications Chambers. [1] Contents 1. Foreword ................................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 4 3. The recent history of UK PSB children’s TV ................................................................................. 6 Statutory and regulatory change 6 Commercial PSB children’s production 8 Commercial PSB children’s programming 9 Non-PSB children’s production 11 Conclusion 12 4. Children’s TV and PSB objectives .................................................................................................. 13 Children’s TV as a PSB genre 13 The UK’s plural approach to PSB 14 Current performance against PSB objectives 16 5. Policy implications .............................................................................................................................. 18 Second PSB review – expectations and out-turn 18 Implications for the third PSB review 20 Non-PSB output 22 [2] 1. Foreword Anne Wood CBE Founder Ragdoll Foundation John McVay Chief Executive Producers Alliance for Cinema and TV (Pact) Pact and the Ragdoll Foundation have collaborated at this important moment in time around Ofcom’s third PSB Review, to develop and communicate the case for greater investment by the UK Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) in children’s TV programming. This report, using the expertise of Communications Chambers, sets out how the current PSB system is failing children and how investment, spend and hours of original content across the PSB channels including BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 has plummeted over the last ten years. Children are the audience of the future and they are currently being underserved as the majority of PSBs are failing to cater for their needs in any meaningful way. Is providing endless repeats satisfactory to support the effective education and development of our children? Well, as the report argues, it shouldn’t be. In the current landscape, the stark reality is one of the BBC left as the remaining sole buyer with shrinking budgets and no guarantee that it will secure the licence fee deal it needs to protect appropriate levels of investment in children’s content in the future. The clear view from the public at the moment is for plurality and diversity of supply which obviously includes children and the evidence from this report demonstrates that the PSBs are failing our younger audiences. Pact, Ragdoll and indeed the entire children’s sector were thrilled to secure the tax credit for children’s TV production in 2014 and this brings us one step closer to securing a broad range of excellent content for children in the future. The children’s sector is a positive incubator for future talent and the tax credits for children’s TV and animation will both keep investment in the UK and secure inward investment too. However, that isn’t enough. This report sets out a number of options that we argue should be debated over the coming months, including quotas on the PSBs for children’s programming. There is a crisis in children’s TV. We urge Ofcom to have a meaningful response to this systematic failure and address this in their final report of the PSB Review. If broadcasters fail to act to improve their offering to this important PSB genre then the end game should be PSB quotas for original children’s content. [3] 2. Executive Summary The last decade has seen a collapse in the Figure 1: Spend on PSB children’s first run hours1 provision of children’s content on the 180 commercial PSB channels. Spend has fallen by 160 Other PSB 95% since 2003. 140 BBC 120 This has been caused in large part by two key 100 regulatory changes. The Communications Act 80 2013 £m 2003 removed quotas for children’s 60 programming, and the ban on HFSS advertising 40 to children in 2006 removed a material part of 20 the revenue available from such programming. 0 In neither case do the consequences appear to 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 have been fully anticipated. The outcome is a very heavy reliance on the BBC for new UK produced programmes. This is completely at odds with the UK’s system of plural PSB, where different PSBs compete to serve each genre. The concentration of children’s provision in the hands of the BBC creates a number of problems: it reduces the diversity of programmes; it removes a competitive stimulus; it creates risk given the threats to BBC budgets; and it creates a (near) single UK buyer for the indie sector to engage with. This concentration is doubly unfortunate given the importance of children’s as a PSB genre. Ofcom’s third PSB review creates an opportunity to redress the balance. The turmoil of DSO (Digital Switchover) is behind us, the PSBs have retained substantial audience share, and the commercial PSBs are financially healthy (with ITV and Channel 5 reporting record profits in 2013). Ofcom and policy makers have various options. Quotas for children’s programming on the commercial PSBs could be reapplied in one of two ways. Firstly, children’s television could be placed in ‘Tier 2’ - the set of programme genres in which Ofcom can, by statute, set such quotas. Secondly Ofcom has raised the possibility of extending PSB status to the PSB’s portfolio channels. This would deliver value to the broadcasters, not least by giving EPG prominence to those channels. Thus the broadcasters could accept additional production obligations in return. 2 1 Ofcom, Children’s analysis [PSB Annual Report], December 2014 2 Note the separate Pact submission to the PSB Review expresses its reservations with regard to this option. [4] Beyond the limited output of the commercial PSBs, it seems likely that many children’s channels are not fully meeting the requirement for 50% of their content to be of European origin. Stricter enforcement in this area could boost investment in original UK content. [5] 3. The recent history of UK PSB children’s TV Over the course of the last decade, children’s TV from the commercial PSBs has seen a dramatic contraction. While a number of factors have contributed, two key drivers were the Communications Act of 2003 and the ban on HFSS advertising. Statutory and regulatory change The Communications Act 2003 Prior to the Communications Act, ITV was required to screen 10 hours of children’s programming per week. Channel 5 had a quota of 11 hours, 40 minutes. However, the Act placed children’s programming in ‘Tier 3’. This required Ofcom to consider whether the PSB “services (taken together) include what appears … to be a suitable quantity and range of high quality and original programmes for children and young people”.3 However, Ofcom did not actually have powers to mandate any particular broadcaster to provide children’s programming. In effect, children’s programming became discretionary for the commercial PSBs. While they were required to consult with Ofcom on changes to hours of programming, the commercial PSBs had substantial freedom to make those changes regardless of the regulator’s views. According to Ofcom, “it is ultimately for PSBs themselves to decide what to deliver”.4 It is not clear that the implications of the Act for children’s television were fully understood at the time of its passage. There was little lobbying on this issue, those involved acknowledged that they were not clear on the significance of relegation to Tier 3, and children’s TV was barely mentioned during passage of the Bill. There was far more attention on changes